With the never-ending to-do lists many of us face, it can be challenging to balance productivity with reality.\u00a0 None of us can go, go, go and never stop \u2013 we have to stop at the very least for sleep.\u00a0 Yet, we need to stop for more than sleep.\u00a0 The challenge in this busy world is to find the pace that makes sense for you.<\/p>\n
First, let\u2019s talk about productivity \u2013 the definition that fits this context best is \u201cyielding results, benefits, or profits.\u201d\u00a0 If you view this definition narrowly, you might only apply it to those tasks that give you hard, clear results \u2013 things that you can see and measure immediately.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d imagine that many of you view time with family valuable.\u00a0 Would you consider it \u201cproductive\u201d?\u00a0 I would, as there are many benefits and even results.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to measure.\u00a0 You can\u2019t really know what would be if you didn\u2019t spend your time with family \u2013 for you or for them.<\/p>\n
One of the ways I think about the idea of productivity is whether I\u2019m making the most of my time.\u00a0 This shifts the idea from trying to accomplish tons of things to being effective and working on those things that are important.\u00a0 In this case, the word important refers to the big picture view \u2013 those values and needs that provide meaning and purpose to our life.<\/p>\n
The amount of time \u2013 \u201cfree\u201d time \u2013 we all have varies \u2013 from person to person and depending on various circumstances \u2013 activities, obligations, support and assistance, health, family, etc.\u00a0 If your \u201cfree\u201d time is minimal, it\u2019s all that more important to maximize that time.\u00a0 The idea of \u201cfree\u201d time seems an oxymoron to me \u2013 as who has free time or at least feels<\/em> like they have free time?<\/p>\n Something that you need to consider is what is reasonable for you personally.\u00a0 The amount of what we can each accomplish in a given day \u2013 the degree of productivity \u2013 will vary from person to person.\u00a0 What factors are you dealing with that could limit your productivity?\u00a0 How can you maximize your effectiveness?<\/p>\n Inc. Magazine had a blurb about the 3 secrets of most productive people a while back \u2013 these illustrate that productivity is about more than accomplishing things.<\/p>\n All three of these focus on the benefits of stepping away from being in the midst of \u201cworking\u201d or being productive in the strict definition.\u00a0 There\u2019s an additional comment about having lives outside of work also reveals these highly productive people have interests that don\u2019t relate to their work.<\/p>\n True productivity can be as much about following your passions that give your life meaning as it is about completing your to-do list and earning money.\u00a0 What your success at being productive will look like is something you need to figure out.\u00a0 I can tell you that it will not mean working on your to-do list every waking moment.\u00a0 And it might mean reevaluating what being productive means to you \u2013 considering those activities you engage in that don\u2019t provide those measurable results. \u00a0I encourage you to discover your own version of what productivity means for you personally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a world where there seems to be a never ending list of more things we need to do, it can be challenging to figure out how to be productive. Yet, how do we define what productive means for us?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[10,8,18,5,9,20,7,22],"class_list":["post-1353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-timemanagement","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-goals","tag-household","tag-motivation","tag-paperwork","tag-procrastination","tag-productivity"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-lP","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1353"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1357,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353\/revisions\/1357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n